


Autumn's Child

by MsBluebell



Series: Recovery [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, But not how it usually happens, Child Abandonment, Child Abuse, Coffee as a metaphor for comfort, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Gen, Homophobic Language, Keith is a soft boy going through a hard time, Ms. Shirogane does her best, New Orleans, PTSD, Past Rape/Non-con, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Canon, Recovery, Sexist Language, Suicide Attempt, Touch-Starved Keith (Voltron), broganes, lactose intolerant!Keith, young!keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 22:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsBluebell/pseuds/MsBluebell
Summary: “Hey, sweetie.” Ms. Shirogane whispers soothingly. “I won't leave you; ok?”Or, in which Aki Shirogane accidently adopts a kid.





	Autumn's Child

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I want to make a few things clear before this story is read.
> 
> 1) This is an entirely self-indulgent fic I wrote based loosely on my own expirences with abuse. These expirences are not universal and not indicitive of abuse survivers in general.  
> 2) This is not a realistic dipiction of adoption or child abuse trials. It is not suppost to be. See above.  
> 3) This is a story about abuse and recovery. It will discuss those things. Warnings have been supplied in the tags.  
> 4) This story is Unbetaed so any grammar mistakes spotted that I missed are welcomed.  
> 5) I totally have a playlist posted for this fic in the End Notes.

The bridge was much higher up than Keith had thought when they’d first spotted it from behind the trees. It was at least a mile high, by his rough and uneducated guess, and the drop from the Cliffside was deep. The river was wider too; wider than any river he’d ever seen before.  
  
Annabeth fidgeted nervously beside him; playing with the too long sleeves of Clancy’s jacket. She was a lot more scared than he was, and still a bit unsure about their decision.  
  
“It’s okay Annabeth.” Keith comforted his foster sister like a good older brother; a job he’s kept he’s determined to succeed in. It’s been a long two days of hiking through the woods, scared and hungry and colder than either of them had ever been, and he’s tired all the way to his bones, but he can still do this. “It’s only supposed to hurt for a minute.”  
  
She’s still shivering, and not just from the cold. Her blue eyes peer down at the river, trying to figure out how much it would hurt when they landed. She’s nine and still doesn’t understand that the water won’t save them.  
  
“We’ll break our necks.” He explains to her, watching her long blonde hair fly as she whips her head around to face him. He’s only thirteen, not the oldest foster sibling that had been in Pa’s house by a long shot, but he still knows this stuff better than her. “We’ll die real fast. We won’t feel a thing.”  
  
It feels like a lie when he says it, and it might be, he can’t be sure. He can only mimic what he’d heard on those special shows Zoe used to watch before she’d left them. But it’s the best plan they have, and defiantly better than Pa finding them. It wasn’t the way their plan was suppose to go, not by a long shot, but it was the best they’ve got now.  
  
“Don’t worry.” He squeezes her hand, the way Clancy used to do for him, and smiles even with his heart trying to squeeze out his throat. “I’ll be with you the whole time.”  
  
Annabeth nods at that, still scared but filled with resolve at his words, and gingerly puts a foot on top of the rail-guard. She’s wearing his shoes, having forgot her own when they were escaping, and the too-big size makes it hard for her to climb up, but she makes it with only a little wobbling.  
  
Keith steps up next, still holding Annabeth’s hand the whole time, his feet are bare and his steps are more stable than his sister’s were. He reaches the top of the rail with little issue and stands tall on top of it.  
  
He takes a cold breath a stares out over the horizon. It’s a long fall from here, and the sight of these trees and these cliffs and that river are going to be the last things he ever sees.  
  
He looks at Annabeth. Annabeth looks at him.  
  
They’re both scared.  
  
But Pa would be worse.  
  
“I’m sorry Anna.” His voice cracks more than he wants it to, stupid, he’s not support to cry.  
  
Annabeth doesn’t say anything, hasn’t for days, she just stares at Keith with those terrified eyes.  
  
It doesn’t matter, last words are stupid and don’t mean anything.  
  
Keith takes one last look over the area and freezes.  
  
A car was coming.  
  
Cars were a bad sign. Cars were hardly ever out here. People didn’t come out here in the middle of Louisiana nowhere, where the nearest town was hours of driving away, unless they were unfortunate enough to live there. While the car certainly wasn’t Pa’s truck, it wasn’t good news either. People around here liked Pa, thought he was nice, didn’t know about the stuff he did at home.  
  
They’d try to take them back to him.  
  
Keith turns to Annabeth. Her eyes are blown wide and fearful, she shaking much harder now, her knobby knees barely holding her up anymore. She peers down at the river quickly, suddenly looking much more willing to take the leap.  
  
The car pulls to a stop about half-way across the bridge, far enough away that the adult inside wouldn’t be able to grab them when they jumped, and Keith is more than ready to go if they try.  
  
A woman steps out of the car slowly, very slowly. She’s not much taller than Keith, by the looks of her, Asian, like him, with short-chopped hair and a easy smile. She’s not dressed like one of the people who live around here; with a loose and puffy purple shirt with a large silver star printed on the bottom right and a black jacket hanging loosely and unzipped on her shoulders. A city lady, he guesses.  
  
“What are you kids out here?” Her voice is mostly calm, but it hitches a little at the end. She’s eyeing them carefully, them and where they’re standing.  
  
“Trying to find town.” Keith gives her the half-truth. That had been their original plan, before they realized how lost and hopeless they were.  
  
She nods, eyes not wavering even a bit. “Where are your parents?”  
  
Keith hisses and Annabeth freezes up beside him.  
  
The lady apparently isn’t an idiot like the rest of the adults he’s met so far, and catches the actions instantly.  
  
“Alright.” The lady’s voice is kept purposely even. “Better question. How long have you kids been out here?”  
  
Neither of them dare speak.  
  
“Are you hungry?” The lady fishes.  
  
Annabeth perks up, betraying her brother with the action. Which isn’t fair at all; as Keith had given her the majority of the food they’d packed.  
  
“I don’t have any food on me…” The lady drawls out, eyes briefly flicking to her car before turning back to the siblings. “…but there should be a McDonalds in the next town.”  
  
Annabeth turns to step down from the railing, but Keith knows this game and keeps a firm grip on her hand to keep her from the trap.  
  
“Right.” Keith is purposely short. “I bet you can buy us candy too.”  
  
The lady’s lip twitches, like she really wants to smile for a moment. Her eyes flicker over him, studying him a lot more intently than before.  
  
“You’ve got a knife.” She leans against her car door, easy smile slipping back on her face. “And I bet you know how to use it.”  
  
Keith’s free fingers brush against his mom’s knife, tucked safely against his hip, and nods.  
  
“Well.” The lady raises both hands and steps away from the car. “I don’t have a weapon, and you’re not much smaller than me. You could take me in a fight, especially if the girl helps.”  
  
Keith’s finger taps against the knife absentmindedly. This seems a little too good to be true. Good things didn’t happen, not to them. There had to be a catch.  
  
Annabeth tugs at his hands, eyes brighter than he’d seen them in a long time. Hope hadn’t quite been beaten out of her yet. She hadn’t been with Pa long enough to learn about these kinds of traps; the ones where you have hope dangled in front of you only to be ripped away.  
  
But he promised to get her out; away from Ma and Pa forever.  
  
“Anywhere is better than here.” He’d claimed as he coaxed her out of their window the night they left. She believed him, trusted him enough to risk Pa’s wrath and make their escape under the safety of the of the dark, alone and uncertain in Louisiana Swamplands.  
  
“Alright.” His voice was weak; regretting his decision even as Annabeth’s face lit up like the sun.  
  
He takes a tentative step down; keeping his violet eyes trained on the lady. She smiles at him, trying to seem assuring even as she lets out a long breath. She pulls open the back door of her car; taking a few good steps away from them as they pass her by.  
  
He keeps his eyes trained on the woman as Annabeth crawls in, only stepping backward into the car when he hears the click of a seatbelt.  
  
The lady waits a few minutes before slipping into the front seat. It’s a slow process, and she keeps her hands in Keith’s sight throughout most of the process. Once her seatbelt is buckled the door is closed she drops her hands on top of the wheel. The lady lets out a very long breath and her forehead rests against the wheel for a solid minute before she takes a shaky breath and forces herself back upright. She glances at her rearview mirror, checking on them, before starting her car and driving off.  
  
Keith’s stomach turns as the bridge slowly passes them by.  
  
He’d been ready to die here.  
  
Now he doesn’t know what will happen.  
  
The nearest town is still a long drive. At least a few hours even if he and Annabeth weren’t turned around in the woods.  
  
It’s a silent ride. The woman in front turned down her radio, too jumpy to be able to stand the sound of the peppy music he’d briefly heard from it, and neither she nor Keith were willing to speak up.  
  
Annabeth gives a happy hum, much livelier than either of her companions. The lady keeps glancing at the mirror to check on them. It makes his skin crawl. He doesn't like being seen; it only leads to bad things when people have their eyes on you.  
  
The lady, apparently, can't stand the silence anymore than she could the music. “My name is Aki, by the way, Aki Shirogane.”  
  
“Keith.” He replies shortly before nodding his head towards his foster sister. “She's Anna.”  
  
“Good names.” She lets out a humorless laugh. “Are you friends? Cousins?”  
  
“She's my sister.” Keith half answers, already annoyed with the questioning. This lady is irritatingly intrusive, and he doesn't like the way she’s digging for information. Luckily Annabeth hasn’t been a big talker for a long time.  
  
The lady lets out a small hum, her eyes flicking between the two. She knows he's not telling the whole story, he can tell, but she thankfully doesn’t push it. “Never had any siblings myself.”  
  
The lady suddenly flicks her wrist, pulling a wallet out of a pocket he hadn’t seen, she flicks it open and reaches back to hand it to him. “I do have a boy of my own though. He's an astronaut.”  
  
She'd said it with so much pride he couldn’t help but be interested. Annabeth perks up and actually makes a small noise. An astronaut, it was impressive, very impressive.  
  
He hesitantly takes the photo, careful not to touch her fingers. He holds it up so Annabeth could see; she leans in, leaning too much against sensitive skin, but she’s happier than he’s ever seen her.  
  
The man in the photo is impressive, all muscled and clean cut, standing perfectly straight in his orange uniform. There’s a rocket behind him.  
  
“Cool, isn’t it?” Ms. Shirogane asks proudly. “My boy, Takashi, graduated top of his class. He's been to space four times.”  
  
“Wow.” Keith breaths, because that's amazing. He couldn't imagine what it was like to do something so amazing. To be so amazing. This guy has been out in the stars, as far away from Ma and Pa as someone could get, and he'd done it four times. He was like Clancy, doing cool-impossible things and being a hero.  
  
Keith wishes he could be half that great.  
  
“Yea.” Ms. Shirogane hummed.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The car ride is a lot less unbearable after that. Ms. Shirogane fills the silence by sharing stories about her cool astronaut son, which seems to ease her nerves a lot more than anything else could. There's no more questions after that, and he doesn’t bother to speak or ask questions of his own.  
  
They reach town about midday. It's not the one he's familiar with, the one Ma would visit after picking them up from school, this one is slightly bigger with a lot more shops. To Keith's surprise, Ms. Shirogane keeps her word and pulls up to the town's McDonalds.  
  
“Alright, what do we want?” Mr. Shirogane asks as she pulls the car into line.  
  
They end up getting two happy meals and a mocha. Ms. Shirogane pulls her car into a nearby empty parking lot. She switches off the car with a huff and takes an overlong swing of her mocha. Annabeth has already torn into the brightly colored box and is hastily biting into her small burger.  
  
Keith nibbles at a fry.  
  
Ms. Shirogane takes a few more sips of her coffee, staring out at the cracked asphalt like it held the answers to all her problems. She raises the cup for another sip; a distressed noise escapes her throat when she realizes it's already empty.  
  
“Okay kids.” With the most tired sigh Keith had ever heard, Ms. Shirogane turns to face them. “Now what?”  
  
“We won't go back to our foster parents .” Keith states firmly. He wants no room for argument, and he doesn't quite trust her not to try and weasel Ma and Pa's identity out of them.  
  
She snorts instead. “Obviously.”  
  
Keith's not sure what to say to that.  
  
“Keith.” Ms. Shirogane's is more even and serious than she'd bothered putting on before. The mask of calm slipping away to reveal something more somber. “We should go to the police.”  
  
The police? That had been his plan two days ago, before they'd been worn down by Pa and the others chasing them down through the wilderness. He'd forgotten about them after the cold and hunger and exhaustion. He never thought they'd make it that far after the first night.  
  
“I don't know what drove you to this point.” Ms. Shirogane spoke after a few minute of silence. “But I can't take you back home, I can't just drop you off somewhere and leave, and I can't just drive off and take you with me. Not without being a kidnapper. The police is our only option.”  
  
“No…” None of this seemed real.  
  
Keith hadn't actually thought through his plan beyond “get to the police station”. Now that the end goal was an actual reality he had no idea what to do next, what to say.

Even Annabeth seemed to realize the weight of the adult's words.  
  
Ms. Shirogane turned to look them directly in the eye. “Listen. I have to take you to the police, that's not even a choice.”  
  
Her eyes rolled over them again, her gaze heavy over his skin. “You two also need a doctor. Badly.”  
  
“So, we have two choices.” She held up a two fingers. “I can either take you straight to the police station and we can talk to them, or we can find a doctor and they can call the police and tell them what’s going on. Either way, the police are getting involved.”  
  
She looked at them, Anna and Keith, and said something the boy never thought he'd hear again.  
  
“It's your choice.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
In the end Ms. Shirogane was able to find a private practice in the town. The doctor was an elderly man with slowly balding white hair and thick rimmed glasses. She pulled him to the side when they walked in, hurried whispers not audible from where he stood at the door. Not that he needed to hear, he had a good idea what they were saying.  
  
The waiting room was blissfully uncrowded, with only one other person sitting off in the corner, he stood up to protest Ms. Shirogane's rather brash cutting in line, but thankfully that was kept between adults. Annabeth took refuge with the toys in the corner of the room; leaving him alone as she found comfort in the stuffed toys.  
  
Keith found he couldn't do much of anything. His thoughts still felt a little fuzzy even now that he was in the safety of someone who could make sure he'd never see Ma and Pa again.

Everything felt numb.  
  
He was so tired.  
  
He's not sure when he ended up sitting on the examination table with the Doctor checking over his bruises. Annabeth sitting next to him; gripping her new stuffed bunny tightly. The Doctor kept clicking his tongue as he examined them; his disapproval growing.  
  
“Well.” Another tongue click. The Doctor adjusted his glasses, turning back to Ms. Shirogane. “They're certainly malnourished.”  
  
“No shit.” Ms. Shirogane pops her lips. “Wanna tell me something a blind man couldn't see?”  
  
“Have you fed them yet?”  
  
“Just some McDonalds.” She waves a hand towards Keith. “But he wouldn't eat.”  
  
The Doctor gives a worried hum. “The signs of abuse are all there. You may have been right to be worried.”  
  
“May have.” She snorts, a look of disgust twisting her face into something ugly.  
  
“I'll have to call the Sheriff.” The Doctor sighs, looking much older than before. “I cant leave you alone with them…”  
  
“But she's not the one who did it!” Keith snaps, startling both the adults. “She doesn’t have to leave. We're safe with her.”  
  
The Doctor and Ms. Shirogane shared a long look, both their eyes occasionally flicking towards him. Annabeth kept silent beside him, too busy buried in her own head to bother with the world around her. But Keith knew what was going on, if the Doctor took Ms. Shirogane out that door he wouldn't see her again, the police would take her statement and she'd be gone.  
  
He didn’t want her to leave. Maybe it was sentiment, maybe it was because she was the one who pulled them from that bridge, maybe it's because she's the only one who'd ever given him a choice, or maybe it was because or something else that went deeper. He couldn’t say. But the idea of being alone around strange adults without her frustrated him.  
  
“Alright.” The Doctor nodded. “My receptionists will call the Sheriff.”  
  
Ms. Shirogane looked all the world like she'd like another coffee.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The Sheriff was a gruff African man that strolled into the Doctor's office with four coffees and the most sour expression Keith had seen all day. He handed a coffee to each of the other adults in the room, grumbling as he walked off with the Doctor.  
  
“Thank God.” Ms. Shirogane told the Receptionist as she took a swing of the drink. “I needed this Chai after the day I've had.”  
  
“I hear you.” The Receptionist laughs darkly. “This has been an awful day.”  
  
Keith doesn't join their banter; doesn't want to. He's still numb and unsure of what to say.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Keith find's himself in the back of the Sheriff’s car squeezed between a silent Annabeth and a grumbling Ms. Shirogane. The woman glances longingly back at her car as it disappears in the rearview mirror. Her hands are cuffed “just to be safe” and she has the same tired look that get was beginning to learn meant she wanted coffee very badly.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
For the first time in months, Keith found himself alone.  
  
The room is probably supposed to feel safe; with soft pastel walls and a comfortable couch in place of an interrogation table. He's certainly better off than Ms. Shirogane, who was in an actual interrogation room right now.  
  
Keith picked his finger with mom's knife.  
  
The social worker had already been called, or so he'd been told. They'd be here very soon, the police woman who last checked on him said. The plate of food she'd brought sat untouched beside him.  
  
He's worried about Annabeth, had fought when they'd been separated, but Annabeth had just walked away silently. She never even looked back, just played with her bunny like it was the only thing in her world. It wasn't a good sign at all.  
  
Violet eyes narrow as the door opens and the police woman peeks her head in.  
  
“They'll be here soon.” She says for what feels like the hundredth time.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Keith hates waiting. He'll be the first to admit he's isn't a patient person at all. Even under the most normal circumstances he isn't comfortable just waiting around.  
Waiting for the social worker had been downright awful.  
  
And now she was here, tap-tap-tapping away at her clipboard, sitting next to the same police woman that kept checking on him for however long he's been here. Her face is stern and unpitying, studying him with silent contemplation. Better than his last social worker, who'd too been gleeful than he was comfortable with.  
  
“I want to see Anna and Ms. Shirogane.” Keith growls, not trusting the two women at all. “I won't talk without them.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
They bring in a bag-eyed Ms. Shirogane who, once again, has a coffee in her hands. She rubs at her wrists tentatively, as if they're still sore from the cuffing, and carefully places her hands on the table.  
  
They don't bring Anna.  
  
“I’m so tired.” His…friend…whispers.  
  
“Unfortunately, Annabeth Williams did not wish to see either of you.” The social worker states bluntly.  
  
Keith's entire body suddenly feels like it's been drenched in ice. The cold spreading through him like an unwanted maggot beneath the skin. He knew it would happen, that they'd be separated, but he didn't think it would be because she didn't want to see him.  
  
She's leaving him, just like Zoe did, just like his mom and dad.  
  
A few tense minutes pass before anyone says anything.  
  
“Well, shit.” Ms. Shirogane, no longer bothering to filter herself, takes yet another too long swing of her coffee.  
  
“Indeed.” The social worker agrees.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
They end up sleeping in the police station that night. Keith gets the couch while the Sheriff brings in a cot for Ms. Shirogane.  
  
Anna was gone, she'd left with the social worker, with nothing but a small wave and her new bunny. She'd given him back Clancy’s jacket, even hugged him before managing to whisper a small and cracked “Goodbye Keith”, before stepping into the car and driving out of his life forever.  
  
His skin still tingled where their arms touched.  
  
Now he was laying on the stupid couch, wrapped so tightly in the jacket that it feels like he might suffocate. He buries his face in the hem of the jacket, trying to keep the traitorous tears from leaking. He tries to muffle a sob; he fails.  
  
“Hey, sweetie.” Ms. Shirogane whispers soothingly, “I won't leave you; ok?”  
  
He wishes he could believe her.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
It's another few days before he leaves the town.  
  
He would've been allowed the leave sooner if he hadn't insisted on staying with Ms. Shirogane. It caused a lot of problems for the social workers and police, who had to run around and order a hurried background check, and forced the woman hold up on the cot for the next few nights.  
  
He doesn't leave the couch much, only moving when Ms. Shirogane can coax him towards the bathrooms, and wraps himself in Clancy's jacket. He won't, can't, let anyone touch him. Not even Ms. Shirogane.  
  
He eats a little, forces down the dry sandwiches as best he can, but it's hard.  
  
When the background check goes through, and Ms. Shirogane's record shows she's clean, a social worker pulls the woman away from the kid-friendly room to speak about something private.  
  
Something like what she wanted to do with him, he suspects.  
  
An hour later Ms. Shirogane walks back into the room with yet another coffee in her hand. She looks him dead in the eye, finger tapping against her paper cup, as she finds a way to break the news to him.  
  
“New Orleans is a four hour drive.” She leans against the door rail, “You better go to the bathroom now, because I'm not making anymore stops.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The second time Keith finds himself in Ms. Shirogane's car is even more quiet than the first.  
  
He's in the front seat this time, it's much darker out that before, and there's a social worker in the back seat while another follows in another car behind them. Ms. Shirogane has another coffee resting in the cup holder, and she only takes the occasional sip, likely preserving the beverage for the long ride.  
  
“Alright.” Ms. Shirogane pipes up. “When we get to my place you're going to have to take Takashi's room until I convert the guest room.”  
  
“Okay.” Keith agrees.  
  
“We’ll get go shopping for clothes and such after we handle all the paperwork and other boring stuff tomorrow.”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“You can pick out whatever you want.”  
  
The conversation is getting awkward now, and Keith wishes that she'd stop for just a moment. He doesn't want to think about tomorrow, or anything really, he just wants to sleep.  
  
And sleep he does.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
He's coaxed out of his sleep by Ms. Shirogane's voice. “Come on, sweetie, we're here.”  
  
The house is a simple one-story brick structure with a cobblestone driveway and a tree in the front. The two social workers are already circling the house, scrutinizing every little detail to make sure it's safe, but there doesn't look like there's going to be a problem.  
  
Then again, it's very dark out.  
  
Keith unbuckles himself and hastily slips out the car, stretching a bit to work out the kinks in his back. Ms. Shirogane is already halfway up the front steps by the time he's done, fumbling with her keys. She unlocks the door once she reaches it, throwing it wide-open and flicking on the lights before turning to gesture her guests inside.  
  
Keith is the last one to step inside.  
  
The living room is tidy enough, with hard wood floors and leather furniture, all resting on top a fluffy silver rug. A holloscreen is hanging on the wall, surrounded by pictures of the astronaut son, turned off at the moment. There's a few framed news clippings on the wall too, all printed from the internet it seems.  
  
“Can I get you anything?” Ms. Shirogane speaks up, heading towards what Keith assumes is the kitchen, “Food? Drinks? Coffee?”  
  
The social workers both ask for coffee, each giving their specific preference, before the woman turns to raise a brow at him.  
  
“No thank you, Ms. Shirogane. I'm not hungry.”  
  
“Aki.” The woman insists, rubbing her forehead tiredly. “Just call me Aki. Please.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Keith is herded towards the bathroom with a towel and one of Takashi's oversized T-shirts and a pair of old boxers. Aki having insisted he shower before bed because he “smells like something roadkill threw up”.  
  
He's in the shower, surrounded by strange face scrubs and fruity smelling shampoos that all look nicer than anything Ma or Pa had, with brightly colored loofa in his hands. The shower-head changes pleasure depending on how the knobs was turned, and there was a little switch that turned on rainbow colored lights that made the water all colorful.

Easily the nicest bathroom he's ever been in.  
  
He stays in the shower a lot longer than he probably should have. Justifying his decision by telling himself that the adults would talk faster if the thought he couldn't hear them, which he couldn't, but he knows he really just really likes the warm water and nice smelling lotions.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
He eventually convinces himself to step out of the shower and dry off with the fluffy towel. Drying and dressing himself in the bathroom before stepping out into the hallway.  
  
“…-idently adopted that kid I told you about.” Keith hears.  
  
He peers around the corner. Aki is alone now, sitting on the couch with her back turned to the hallway, in her hand is a phone. Her other hand is tightly gripping her head, like it's trying to keep it from rolling off her shoulders, “So I'm not coming in tomorrow. Tell Jeanne I'll give her a twenty-five cent raise. I gotta get more paperwork done and get him settled tomorrow. Then I'll need another day to…”  
  
Keith doesn't want to listen anymore, so he loudly closes the bathroom door and walks around the corner.  
  
Aki jumps and turns to face him, “I gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow.”  
  
She hangs up the phone before whoever was on the other line can protest. Smiling at him with what was probably her best attempt at comforting. “Hey honey, you need anything? Or are you ready for bed?”  
  
“Bed.” Keith is too tied for anything else.  
  
Aki lets out a relieved sigh, looking absolutely exhausted as she forces herself to stand, “Me too, hun, me too.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Takashi's room was covered in space memorabilia.  
  
His wallpaper was covered in stars, there were posters of the milky-way, models of the planets hanging from the ceiling. A shelf with various books and movies shoved into the corner, a stuffed Martian sitting on one shelf with his leg hanging freely over the edge. A desk covered in stickers or stars, with charts littering the top, and various model rockets lines neatly along the edge.  
  
His bed was full-sized, with a fluffy comforter and too many pillows, and Keith sunk into the mattress when he climbed on top of it.  
  
“Memory foam.” Aki grunted, “It was a Christmas present.”  
  
The bed faced another hollo screen, this one not as nice as the one in the living room. Aki picked up the remote and switched it on, giving a satisfied grunt when and assembly line with softly whirring machines popped on screen.  
  
“This used to put Takashi right to sleep.” Aki muttered happily as she pulled back the blankets on the bed, “Hop in.”  
  
“I'm not a baby.” He growls.  
  
“Never said you were.” The older woman shrugs, “Are you getting in?”  
  
Keith debates it, but ultimately decides it's not worth the fight when he's this tired. He still doesn't trust it, this kindness, but anywhere and anyone was better than Pa. Aki is better than any other adult so far, though, so he rolls to where she has the blankets pulled back and lays down.  
  
She pulls the blankets over him and pulls away.  
  
“Night sweetie.” She hums, flicking off the light as she goes. She leaves the door cracked, but is gone down the hallway without another word.  
  
“Goodnight…” He mutters a minute later, burying himself into Takashi's too soft bed. The sounds and hisses of machines lulling him to sleep.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki wakes him up the next morning by peeking her head into the room and loudly proclaim he had to get up because they “have shi- a lot to do today.”  
  
She'd apparently taken the time to wash his clothes last night, because places them lightly on the edge of the bed before turning out the room. He still has no shoes, but there are a pair of socks on top the pile that weren't there before.  
  
He plays with the hem of his ratty shirt, not really wanting to put it on, these were clothes Ma put him in. Ma had liked these clothes, had picked them out from the second-hand store herself, and he hated them for it.  
  
Aki said that they could buy more clothes today though, so if he could just make it through today he could throw them away and he'd never have to see them again.  
  
Swallowing a lump in his throat, Keith slips on the clothes. Unhappy with the way they felt on his skin, but also willing to put up with it if it means getting through the day faster.  
  
He leave the room and makes his way towards the kitchen, promising himself that he'd make the bed later.  
  
The kitchen is a lot like the rest of the house; small but personal. The walls are a pretty blue color, there's an island In the middle surrounded by spiny stools, plants and tied back herbs hanging from the ceiling. Aki is cooking at a flat stove, the sizzling sound off oils on a heated pan being the loudest thing in the room. A very fancy looking coffee machine is sitting in the corner, unsurprisingly making coffee.  
  
“I hope you like grits and eggs.” Aki hums. “Cause that's all I've got. I'm out of bacon and waffle mix.”  
  
It doesn't matter.  
  
Food is…weird…you couldn’t really trust it.  
  
Aki hums despite his silence, and slips the food onto two plates. The grits look extra cheesy, and Keith can't help but wonder just how much cheese she melted into the pot. She places the plates onto the island, but doesn’t sit down yet.  
  
“Do you want milk or juice?” She asks; opening a drawing covered refrigerator door and pilling out both.  
  
“Juice.” Keith supplies, sitting on the closest bar stool with a plate.  
  
“Juice it is.” She pours him a sizable amount in a plastic cup before sliding it across the island and next to his plate. It's only after she pours milk into her coffee and places both jugs back into the refrigerator that she sits down and starts to eat.  
  
Keith watches her closely, and only after he sees her take a bite of everything does he bother taking a few bits himself. The food is warm, and tastes better than anything Ma ever cooked.  
A lot of things about Aki are better than Ma.  
  
“Is it good?” The adult asks, taking another bite of eggs. She's eyeing him a little nervously now, the fingers of her free hand tapping rapidly against her coffee cup. She looks smaller, now, in her oversized sleep clothes.  
  
“Yea…” Keith pokes at the grits with his spoon, “But there's too much cheese.”  
  
Aki looks downright offended, “Too much cheese? How dare-? In my own kitchen.”  
  
For a moment, Keith is worried a fist will come, and he freezes in expectation. He glances up, when the fist doesn’t come, only to see Aki guiltily shoveling her food around the plate, “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Sometimes I forget what it's like when you're starting out.”  
  
Keith's eyebrow furrow.  
  
“I won't put as much cheese in next time.” Aki takes a long swing of her coffee. “I promise. So don't be afraid to tell me if it's too much.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
After breakfast Keith finds himself in Aki's car again. She's on the phone again, and he's wearing an extra pair of her shoes. She hands him some portable game of sorts and tells him to “play some Mario while I sort out the boring legal stuff.”  
  
He ties at playing the game once they reach a large marble building full of people with suits. Aki parks him on a huge leather chair and talks to a receptionist. She takes a seat beside him for a bit, but forty minutes later she's gone behind a large set of doors.  
  
He's alone for about an hour and a half after that; with the receptionist occasionally asking if he needs anything. He's content with Mario's company though, and more than happy to reject her attempts to check on him.  
  
Aki comes back with a folder full of papers and another appointment to an office across the street. The process in this building is the same as the one in the first, only this time he has to sit in the same office as his new guardian.  
  
The process is repeated a third and fourth time before Keith starts to hate the sound of Mario. Aki, herself, looks run ragged and very unhappy with the legal hoops she has to jump. Finally, after the sixth office, there's nothing else anyone can do today and they're allowed to leave.  
  
“Thank God.” Aki mutters as she strolls across the parking lot a little too quickly, more eager to get out of here than even Keith had been, and he had been ready to deck the fifth receptionist. Unwarranted maybe, but he'd spent hours in those offices.  
  
It's three o'clock when the reach a clothing store and Aki throws herself inside at what felt like the speed of sound.  
  
“Just pick whatever you want.” She says as she grabs a chart a pushes it down the first aisle. “I don't care what it is, as long as there's at least some shoes and a jacket thrown in.”  
  
It was much easier said than done, and in the end Aki ended up being forced to prod him into at least looking at what he threw in the chart. The whole trip took much longer than it honestly should have, and Keith couldn't help the embarrassed flush. It's just that…picking out clothes was strange and he wasn't even really sure what he liked at first.  
  
Aki was unbearably patient with him as he took too long to examine every shirt and pair of jeans his eyes landed on. She didn't even complain when he would spend entire minutes running the materials through his fingers before moving on to repeat the process with the next items, only grabbing a small and select few.  
  
“Don't worry about it.” She waves off his concern. “I get it.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki decides that they can get stuff for his room another day, and that he could just use Takashi's room until then.  
  
“This day has already been too long.” She mutters as the car pulls in the driveway. “And tomorrow is gonna be just as long. Better rest up.”  
  
Dinner that night is sandwiches, eaten on the couch with chips and sodas, the TV flashing some melodrama in front of them. They're both back in their pajamas at this point, and Aki is leaning back with her bare feet on the coffee table. Their hands are never in the bag at the same time, and Aki always waits for him to grab a chip before she reaches for one.  
  
She also gives him the biggest blanket in the room, promising she didn't mind being left with the smaller one.  
  
It's a small gesture, but it means the world.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
He wonders about Annabeth that night as he's buried in Takashi's bed. Wonders if she's safe, if she's happy, where she is. He hopes they know she has nightmares about Pa, and that the only way the quiet her was to pat her hair.  
  
He thinks of Clancy and Zoe too.  
  
Those thoughts are harder.  
  
The last time he'd seen Zoe she'd pushed him to the ground and run off into the woods herself, leaving him behind with only Ma and Pa. He doesn't blame her, can't even be angry, because she was right. He would've only slowed her down. He hopes she got away; found somewhere safe and warm away from people like Ma and Pa.  
  
He's safer now, much safer than with Ma and Pa, and even though he's still waiting for Aki to throw her first punch it feels better than before.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
“I have official temporary custody.” Aki tells him the next morning. “And we'll have a couple of social workers in and out until I have full custody.”  
  
Keith nods over an apple crepe.  
  
“They're giving us some time before you have to be enrolled in school.”  
  
He nods again.  
  
“And they've arrested your foster parents.”  
  
That caused Keith to freeze; ice welling up in his stomach.  
  
“They're going to need you…for the trail…” Aki rubs her eyes.  
  
“I don’t wanna go!” Keith snaps without meaning to, feeling guilty even as he shoves his plate away and stomps out the room.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki knocks on Takashi's door about an hour later, but doesn't enter when he remains silent.  
  
Shame fills him when he hears her quietly shuffling away. He buries himself in the pillows, trying to hide from the guilt. He runs his hands over mom's knife, trying to find some form of comfort from the cold metal. Like before, when it was the only thing between him and the crippling loneliness of his empty room.  
  
After Clancy.  
  
After Zoe.  
  
Keith's grip tightened on the blade's handle; the familiar feeling eased the pain in his throat. It did nothing for the shame though. He'd just have to live with it. He had no one to blame but himself for this awful feeling.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Keith is jerked awake by the sound of the door opening.  
  
Aki walks in, carrying two coffee cups, and slowly sits on the edge of the bed. Keeping a good distance between herself and Keith as she sets one of the cups on the windowsill beside them. She takes s slow sip of her coffee, giving a satisfied hum at the taste. She spends a moment silently watching him; probably trying to find the right words for what she wanted to say.  
  
“I brought you some hot chocolate.” She gestures toward the cup. “It has little marshmallows.”  
  
Keith eyes the cup with a small frown.  
  
“Don't worry.” Aki’s fingers tabs her cup. “It's lactose free.”  
  
Keith's stomach lurches, and he throws himself up, tossing himself away from the adult. His back hits the edge of the headboard. He falls from the bed; hitting the floor sharply. It doesn't hurt nearly as badly as Pa's fists or Ma's nails, but he can't keep a yelp from escaping his lips.  
  
“Keith!” Aki jumps up, dropping her coffee, and kneels next to him. She reaches out, like she wants to hold him, but freezes just before she can touch him. She forces her hands into her lap; fidgeting with them.  
  
“Are you alright?” She asks.  
  
It's a trap.  
  
It has to be.  
  
She has him cornered right now, and she knows he lied to her. She was waiting for him to fall for it; to give into that little hope. He knew it was too good here; that she was too good. Better than Ma and Pa, at least, but it still hurt.  
  
At least he wouldn't have to wait anymore.  
  
“Keith, sweetheart.” Her voice is deceptively soft. He squeezes his eyes shut and waits for the fists to come.  
  
Don't fight back, he reminds himself, it's worse if you fight back.  
  
“Keith.” She's hovering over him now. “You're not in trouble.”  
  
Liar.  
  
“I’m not going to hit you.” Her voice is firm, but shakes a bit in the end. “I won't ever hit you.”  
  
He wishes he could believe her, he really does. But he's heard that line before and already felt for it once. The fist always hurt worse when you believe they won't come, and he's learned to shield himself from the bitter disappointment. He knows the game, knows it’s rules, and he’s ready for it.  
  
But Aki only stands up silently and turns to clean the broken coffee cup next to them; her back turned to him. She doesn’t say anything even as she cradles the broken bits of cup in her hand; hot coffee dripping between her fingers.  
  
“I’ll be back in a moment.” She promises; standing with those broken bits of cup and walking out the room. There’s a puddle of coffee sit gathered on the floor and an unbroken cup sitting on the windowsill, but Keith can’t move himself to reach for either.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me you were lactose intolerant?” Aki asks later, over another cup of hot cocoa.  
  
They’re in the kitchen this time, with the island sitting between them. They’re both in pajamas again, and dinner is heating on the stove behind them. Cajun gumbo, Aki had told him, something a friend of hers hand brought over earlier today while he rested in Takashi’s room. The right gumbo takes days to make, Aki claimed, and this friend had made it to welcome him to the family.  
  
It made him feel guilty.  
  
“I’m sorry.” He mutters, taking a reluctant sip of his cocoa. Nothing he did seemed to be right these days.  
  
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” Aki leans forward. “I’m just worried. I don’t want to make you sick.”  
  
“I’m sorry.” Keith tries again.  
  
Aki sighs, taking a tentative sip of her own cocoa now. He’s not making this easy on her, he knows that, but he’s not sure how else to respond. It’s all new to him, and nothing seems to work they way he thought. She’s changing the rules of the game, and he doesn’t know where to go from there.  
  
“You don’t have to be.” Aki promises. “You don’t ever have to be sorry for a medical problem, sweetheart, that’s not something you can help.”  
  
Ma hadn’t thought so.  
  
Ma took pride in her cooking, and always flew into a rage when someone didn’t eat the results of her hard labor. Food allergies didn’t matter to her, and she took any attempts to skip out of a meal as a personal insult. There were many thrown plates and enraged shrieks thrown at Clancy and Zoe over the issue. And Keith can remember the feel of Ma’s long fingernails gripping his head, shoving him into a plate of food and holding him down, demanding he eat the Mac-&-Cheese she’d spent all day preparing for him. It felt like he was drowning; with hot food smearing all over his face. Clancy had gotten a terrible beating from Pa that day after pulling her off.  
  
“I thought you’d be mad.” He settles.  
  
Aki frowns.  
  
“I’m not mad at you sweetie.” Aki tries in the most comforting voice she can manage. “I just don’t want to hurt you.”  
  
Aki gestures towards the refrigerator. “After I looked at your medical record I went grocery shopping. I got you some lactose free snacks. Lactose free milk, ice-cream, some special cheese. You can eat them whenever you want.”  
  
Keith eyes the refrigerator warily.  
  
“You don’t have to eat anything you don’t want to.” Aki places her cup down gently. “Especially if it makes you sick. I won’t be mad. Your health is more important than someone else’s opinion on the matter.”  
  
Aki stands up and walks towards the stove. “Now. Do you want some gumbo?”  
  
Keith thinks about it before a moment before nodding.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The courts are giving him and adjustment period before he has to enroll in school, and he’ll be given more free time whenever he has to be present for Ma and Pa’s trial. While he’s thankful for the time to adjust to his new environment, that also meant that he had nothing to do when Aki has to return to work.  
  
Aki turns out to be one of the owners of a café in an old cotton exchange that’s been around since New Orleans was first built. The cotton exchange was a huge wooden building on top a large cobble stone path, with a couple of dozen private owned stores inside.  
  
The café was more of a small restaurant in nature, with the friend that had made their gumbo working as the cook while Aki worked on hot drinks and dealt with the financing. Something she handled with her old job before retiring. The other owner, who Aki told him was just called Baba by everyone around here, was and old and plump African woman. She seemed friendly enough, and had almost grabbed him in a hug before Aki had pulled her aside to talk about budgeting.  
  
The café itself was located at the front of the cotton exchange; with the whole front wall being a window. The inside was decorated in “traditional voodoo images” that “bring in the tourist” and had a set of stairs that lead to another floor of tables above the kitchen.  
  
“You can watch TV here.” Aki stated as she flipped the “Open” light on. “Or you can explore the cotton exchange. Just don’t leave the building, alright?”  
  
Keith had decided exploring the building was a more worthwhile adventure. Aki smiled and handed him a twenty dollar bill before telling him to “run off and have some fun.”  
  
That’s how Keith found himself exploring a botany shop, a hoodoo shop, a jewelry store, a pub, a pet store, and at least three different art shops. The shop owners are all very nice, and half of them are familiar with Aki, Keith ends up with at least one free gris-gris from the hoodoo shop “for good fortune” and a reminder from the botany shop that Aki needed to “pick up her order.”  
  
Keith does end up spending his twenty.  
  
It was a small leather sketch book from one of the art stores. Soft and brown, made from recycled paper, with a little anchor charm hanging from the edge of the leather close fold. It reminded him of his dad, of home, back in the desert shack so many years ago.  
  
Keith smiled a bit as he ran his hands over the soft leather. He’d have to wait until he had more money to buy those special pencils, but this was enough.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Another drawback of his new home was the fact that Aki was required to find him a therapist. Aki had chosen a social services approved therapist not too far from her workplace, just three buildings down, who specialized in PTSD, Child Abuse, Sexual Identities, and Anxiety.  
  
Dr. Bellamy had been in practice for about fifteen years now, and probably handled dozens of kids just like him. Keith would visit them every Wednesday at two o’clock, during Aki’s lunch hour. Aki, herself, would attend every third session.  
  
Keith hated the whole arrangement.  
  
The building was also old, not dissimilar at all to the cotton exchange, but Keith hated it instantly. Just like he hated the psychologist sitting in the leather chair across from him. The doctor was as infuriatingly patient with him as Aki, but without the emotional confusion and a lot more questions. Dr. Bellamy was as clever as Aki without any of the hesitancy; more than willing to ask the questions Aki wouldn’t.  
  
Keith hated feeling like an open book; it made it easy for other people to get under your skin and dig into those places that hurt. That’s how Pa worked, he found just the right place to hurt you and ripped the defenses down with mocking words and fists. Pa wasn’t stupid, he read people real well, and always found the right words to drive someone into a rage.  
  
Dr. Bellamy’s probing questions weren’t so much rage inducing as they were painful, though, like a gently stitching needle through the hole Pa left behind. Not closing the wound, but leaving the wires there for Keith to pull shut when he was ready.  
  
It didn’t mean he had to like it though.  
  
He still preferred Aki’s silent empathy to Dr. Bellamy’s logical beat down of his understanding. The doctor always had some kind of theory or explanation for why something happened or how he was cooping with the situation. But he didn’t care about the how’s and why’s. He just…  
  
He didn’t know what he wanted.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
He used to be a crybaby.  
  
Younger Keith had been open with his emotions, bad at expressing the maybe, but open. He cried a lot, for a lot of different reasons. It was rare for an adult to try and comfort him, and it caused other children to pick on him, but he still let the tears fall when they wanted.  
  
Pa thought different.  
  
“Only faggots and women cry, boy.” Pa would snap as he smacked Keith to the floor. “Now get up and fight back like a man, or I’ll really give you something to cry about.”  
  
The fist always hurt worst when he cried again, and they wouldn’t stop until he got up to fight back. Hit if you cry, hit if you fought. Fighting back made Pa happier, made him smile and say how proud he was even as he tossed the young boy into a wall. It was a three year process to turn Keith from a crybaby into a fighter, and Pa was always so proud of himself for it.  
  
Ma didn’t like it when he fought back, though, and Pa hated it as well. The best thing to do against Ma was to just wait out whatever happened.  
  
Hitting Ma was what got Clancy taken away; Pa’s enraged yelling overpowered even the police sirens as he yelled that “you don’t hit women boy!”  
  
Zoe had taken Keith and hidden in the attic the whole time, watching her blood brother taken away from the window, resentful that her own family could act so much like monsters. A week later she would be gone, never to be seen again.  
  
Annabeth would come a month later.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki keeps her promise never pressures him to eat anything she cooks. Even when he would worry her by skipping multiple meals in the day, she would simply let him grab a bag of chips and a soda and hole up in Takashi’s room.  
  
She didn’t bother him when he decided to hide from him; only checking up on him every now and again by knocking on Takashi’s door. Sometimes she’d remind him that the food was still in the refrigerator if he changed his mind, but she never pushed.  
  
“I get it.” She would explain when he chose to eat the next morning. “I really do.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
A lot of Aki’s interactions with him are defined by the words “I get it.”  
  
Whenever he would lose his temper and snap and her and storm off. Whenever he would hole himself in Takashi’s room and refuse to come out in favor of wallowing in his own self misery. Even when he refused to come out of his room the day that Mama came over for dinner.  
  
It was always “I get it” or “I understand.”  
  
It infuriated him.  
  
“No you don’t!” Keith snaps one day, slamming his plate down too hard and shattering it all over the island, spilling the food everywhere and cutting his finger in the process. “No one does!”  
  
He looks up to glare at her, hands raised to fight her off if she decides to attack, and freezes.  
  
Aki’s eyes are blown wide, horrified, and at some point she’d thrown herself away from the island. She’d backed herself up against the kitchen counter; arms brought up to shield her the same way Keith’s were. She was scared, he realized with dread pooling in his stomach, scared of him.  
  
It was a familiar scene.  
  
She did get it.  
  
Keith silently cleans the mess he’d made, not daring to look at his foster mother.  
  
That night, as he’d buried deep beneath Takashi’s blankets, Aki comes to check up on him. He pretends to sleep as she brushes her fingers lightly over his hair. The guilt eats him alive even as she wishes him a good night before silently leaving the room, making sure the door was cracked as she goes.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Keith get’s tired of waiting for the hits to come, so he jumpstarts the process himself.  
  
It’s during one of his “bad days”, as Aki has taken to calling them, when it happens. Dinner is in the living room, and Aki was just too close for him and her hand accidently brushes his thigh when she reaches for the remote and he just…snaps.  
  
Too much fear and too many instincts kick him into action. He punches her before he even realizes he did it, and she goes flying over the coffee table with a loud SMACK.

Aki gives a pained cry as she lands too hard against the table.  
  
Keith, horrified, tries to bolt.  
  
Aki jumps up and catches him from behind, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him back.  
  
Keith screams, arms beating against her again and again and again. More panicked beating and scratching against her arms than anything, but she doesn’t let him go.  
  
“Keith!” Aki begs, voice as panicked as he feels. “Keith! Honey! Calm down!”  
  
Keith doesn’t calm down, too full of adrenaline and fear, instead he wiggles around in her arms and starts beating her fists against her harder. Trying his best to free himself from her embrace.  
  
“Keith! Sweetie!” Aki pulls him closer, shoving his face into her neck even has his fists beat her. “I’m sorry. I promise I won’t hit you. I’m sorry.”  
  
Most psychologist would have said it would be better to let him go, that holding him like this would only cause him to panic more and would do nothing to help or build trust between them.  
  
Most psychologist would be right.  
  
But neither of them are thinking right now. Everything is fear, panic, and pure instinct. They’re both flying by on pure emotion. There’s no logic, no thought to the consequences, just the two of them and the raw hurt they’re experiencing.  
  
“I won’t ever hit you, baby boy.” Aki promises even as Keith’s nails scratch against her arms. “No matter what you do. No matter what you say. I won’t ever hit you.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
“Who hurt you?” Keith asks the next day over breakfast.  
  
It’s a deeply personal question, not one they should be having in their pajamas over a plate of waffles, and he probably doesn’t have a right to ask. The curiosity burns though, and he feels like he needs to know now. Because Aki has worked her way under his skin, and he’s attached despite himself, and part of that means being worried and angry on her behalf.  
  
The same way she was for him.  
  
Aki hums, taking a too-long sip of her coffee, and turning her eyes towards the hanging herbs tied above their heads. For a moment, Keith things she may not answer, but eventually she turns back to him and speaks.  
  
“My boy’s daddy.” She says it like it doesn’t bother her. “He was a mean, mean, man.”  
  
“I’m sorry.” He really is.  
  
“Don’t be.” She places her cup down. “It was his fault, no one else’s.”  
  
“Does…” Here he hesitates. “Does Takashi…?”  
  
“No.” She explains. “I never wanted him to know.”  
  
She looks him dead in the eyes, taking another sip off coffee before continuing. “Takashi’s daddy…he wasn’t just a bad man to me. He was a bad man to a lot of people, and I never wanted him to know about that.”  
  
Aki leans back on two chairs; her eyes roll towards the ceiling again. She gives a small hum, conflicted about weather or not to continue, before her eyes roll back to him and something akin to resolve enters them.  
  
“I was kicked out when I was eighteen.” Aki starts, eyes narrowing at some distant memory he couldn’t see. “My parents were first generation immigrants from Japan, and they were really into the whole Asian-tiger-parents stereotype. I wouldn’t go on a date with some rich guy they liked, so they decided my cousin was better and got rid of me.”  
  
Aki gives a bitter laugh. “So there I was, staying at a friend’s house until I could find a job. I found one and started working on my degree, but it was a lot of work and very stressful. I also was going hungry a lot.”  
  
“Is that how you met him?” Keith asks lightly.  
  
“Yea.” Aki gives another bitter laugh. “A few of my equally poor friends had gotten something called a sugar daddy, a rich guy who pays to spend time with you, and it worked out really well for them, so I went for it.”  
  
Keith stomach sinks at this.  
  
“That’s how I met Johnny.” Aki’s eye roll again. “At first he was really nice; very sweet, and kind, and caring. Doting even. And he really, really, liked me.”  
  
“It was too good to be true.” Aki sighs, another sip of coffee following. “I knew it, but I was young and stupid, and I didn’t wanna believe that this whirlwind romance was anything other than a fairytale.”  
  
Aki scoffs in disgust, sneering at her past self’s willful ignorance. “Then I found out what he did.”  
  
Keith had a terrible feeling about that.  
  
“Long story short: Johnny wasn’t willing to just let “his lady” go like that.” Aki has air quotes at that. “And I ended up being forced to do things I didn’t want to anymore.”  
  
“How’d you get out?” Keith asks, trying to pull her away from the darker parts of her thoughts.  
  
“There was a rat.” Aki explains. “He got me out. I testified against Johnny in a trial, changed my name, moved here, and I’ve been lying to my son about it ever since he was born.”  
  
“He’s an adult.” Keith points out. “Why not tell him now?”  
  
“How do you explain to a man that he was raped into you?” Aki’s question is blunt, unforgiving and uncompromising in it’s intensity, and unregretful in it’s brutality. “You don’t.”  
  
Keith didn’t have anything to say against that.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The trail involves a lot of interviews with a lot of police and lawyers. Ma and Pa’s different defense attorneys each have supervised interviews with him as well, and even an attorney for Clancy comes to speak to him about maybe getting him out of jail because now they believe his self-defense claims.  
  
It’s all too much, and every interview feels like a walk through a dead winter night.  
  
He doesn’t want to face either Ma nor Pa when the trail finally comes.  
  
But he will.  
  
Because Annabeth will be there too, and he can’t stand the thought of leaving her to face them alone. Or Clancy, who they were taking out of jail to testify against his parents and sue for a retrial, having to incriminate his own parents with no one but a strange little girl he’s never met a company, not when no one could find Zoe.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The middle school Aki enrolled him in starts sending him schoolwork when his original adjustment period is met. He still doesn’t have to physically go to the building, but he’s expected to start doing the work and turn it in now.  
  
Baba, who just so happened to be a retired school teacher, came over to help him catch up with most of the work. She’d sit him down and explain how to do the work, always stopping if he had a question, and so patient that it made his teeth itch.  
  
She always styed for dinner afterward, because her “grandbabies live just so fa’ away.” While Aki always promised to cook, Baba usually ended up huffing and stealing the kitchen from her. Aki just sheepishly allowed it because “Baba is a better cook anyway.”  
  
“Good gods above boy.” Baba would always click her tongue when she saw him. “You too skinny. What is that girl o’ mine feeding you?”  
  
“I’m eating way more than before.” Keith defended lightly. “Food is still weird for me.”  
  
Baba would just click her tongue and grumble. “Gonna have to put more meat on them bones. People gonna think we starven you.”  
  
Keith was starting to look forward to the days when Baba would come over. She always told stories when she cooked; about history and voodoo and growing up in New Orleans. Interesting things that Keith had never heard of in school before.  
  
It was starting to become comfortable.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki, apparently, hadn’t told her son about Keith.  
  
“I was waiting until I got full custody.” Aki defends, hiding behind her coffee cup like it would somehow shield her from Baba’s judgmental stare. “You know what Takashi is like.”  
  
“Baby doll.” Baba drawled out the vowels of the nickname purposefully. “How long you plannin’ on hidin’ from your own kin?”  
  
“I literally just told you that.” Aki mutters.  
  
“You got to tell him Suga’.” Baba huffs, hands planted firmly on her hips.  
  
“How would I even explain it to him?” Aki whines, slowly sinking into her seat. Then, in a fake cheerful voice, acts out a metaphorical conversations. “Hey Takashi! You remember when I lasted visited you? Well, on the way home I accidently adopted a kid!”  
  
“That’s a start.” Baba’s voice is serious.  
  
“A terrible one!” Aki cries out. “Keith! Help me out here!”  
  
“I can’t believe you haven’t told him yet.” He sides firmly with Baba, earning the older woman’s approving gaze.  
  
"Betrayed by my own boy."  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
In the end Aki is forced to call Takashi under the watchful gaze of Baba.  
  
Keith can’t gage exactly what she says, as she switches to a language that he assumes is Japanese, but there are fast pasted whispers and long hisses that makes him think they’re arguing. There are long, awkward, pauses and too many frustrated noises for his liking. The phone call ends with Aki angrily hitting the end button and throwing herself into a pillow and screaming into it.  
  
“Went well?” Baba frowns at her.  
  
“Oh, y’know.” Aki grumbles. “Just Takashi coming to fix his stupid mom’s mistakes again.”  
  
“He’s comin’ here?” Baba seems surprised by the news.  
  
“Yea.” Aki sighs, sinking further into her pillow. “He’s breaking the news to Iverson and his lot now.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆

  
Aki refuses to kick him out of Takashi’s room despite Keith’s repeated insistence.  
  
“He’ll just insist you sleep in there while he takes the guest room.” Aki grumbles. “You’ve made that room your own.”  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Takashi arrives a week later.  
  
He’s as tall and strong looking as his pictures. Standing straight with an easy smile spreading over his face. He has a bag casually slung over his shoulder; which he drops beside him as he steps away from the Uber he rode in.  
  
“Hello Takashi.” Aki smiles, running and throwing her arms around him as he makes his way up the driveway. Takashi awkwardly returns the hug, holding on just long enough before gently pushing her away to peer at Keith.  
  
“Alright.” Aki bounces away. She strolls over, putting both her hands on Keith’s shoulders and standing behind him. “Takashi, this is Keith, your new little brother!”  
  
A smile brighter than the sun lights up Takashi’s face. He kneels down, reaching a hand out for Keith to take. “Hello Keith. My name is Takashi, but you can call me Shiro.”  
  
Keith studies…Shiro’s…hand for a moment before reaching out to take it. To Keith’s surprise, and momentary fear, Shiro pulls him forward and into a hug.  
  
The hug is warm and all consuming. Shiro is so big and strong that he could engulf Keith with his entire body, but instead the hug was soft and gentle. It was the best thing Keith had felt in a long, long, time and reminded him so much of his dad that he couldn’t help the tears that leaked from his eyes.  
  
“Takashi!” Aki cries. “Ask first!”  
  
Shiro gently let go of Keith, and the younger boy couldn't help but mourn the loss of the warmth. “Sorry buddy, I’ll ask first next time.”  
  
Next time.  
  
Keith nods, whipping the tears from his eye.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Shiro and Aki loved each other.

Shiro and Aki also had a very difficult and complex relationship that involved a Aki actively lying to Shiro about his father.  
  
Aki, apparently, told Shiro his father was dead until he was old enough to start asking more personal and deep questions about the man. After that she told him that he was the product of a one-night-stand in Vegas.  
  
Shiro had also never met either of his grandparents, or any other relatives for that matter, and only knew that Aki had been kicked out.  
  
These combined facts has left a certain image of his mother in Shiro’s head. That, as much as he loved his mother and wanted the world for her, she was pretty irresponsible when she was younger. Obviously, Shiro had said, she had cleaned up her act for him, but he was concerned about weather or not she could handle a child in a precarious situation as Keith.  
  
It didn’t take Aki long to ask Keith if he was maybe getting a little tired. Which was obvious code that meant an argument was about to happen, and she didn’t want Keith around to hear it.

Keith, more than familiar with these situations, is reluctant to leave her with a man so much bigger and stronger than either of them.  
  
Aki just gently pushes him along; smiling reassuringly the whole time.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Later that night, after the muffled foreign words in the kitchen die down and the sound of Shiro’s footsteps reach the quest room, Aki stops by to check on him.  
  
She manages to brush his hair back gently before she breaks down.  
  
“He got mad and stepped forward during the argument.” Aki tries to smother the sniffles into a pillow he hands her, “And he…he just looked so much like his daddy that I…”  
  
“I was scared of my own child.” Her voice is horrified by the realization. “My own boy. I swore he was mine, but all I could see…”  
  
“Aki…” Keith pats her knee gently, drawing her attention to him. “Do-…can I have a hug?”  
  
Aki sniffles some more, but is able to work up a shaky smile. “Of course, sweetie.”  
  
Their first hug is slower than Shiro’s was, but just as gentle and warm. Aki pulls him into her, resting his face in the crook of her neck, and brushing a hand through his hair gently. She still shaking a bit, but it’s dying down quickly. Keith wraps his arms around her back; relaxing into her hold like a baby.  
  
He always wondered what a hug from a mom would feel like.  
  
It feels better than he always imagined.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Shiro is the one who makes breakfast the next morning, an apology to his mother for the argument last night.  
  
They’re pancakes.  
  
Horribly burnt pancakes.  
  
Aki is forced to grab a fire-extinguisher she apparently kept for just such occasions. The whole kitchen is covered in white foam and smells like burnt death by the time the whole ordeal is done, and they’re all forced to grab breakfast elsewhere.  
  
“How are you this bad at cooking?” Aki grumbles in the car. “You’ve been living away from home for two years! Baba sends you recipes!”  
  
“Please don’t tell her.” Shiro groans, head in his hands.  
  
“Ohhhh, I’m telling her.” Aki laughs. “Maybe she can teach you a thing or two about cooking.”  
  
The pained expression on Shiro’s face made him look more like a man on death row than a man being faced with inevitable cooking lessons.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
He and Shiro bond by exploring New Orleans during Aki’s shift at the café.  
  
Shiro, ever responsible, takes it on himself to show Keith the best parts of kid-friendly New Orleans. Everything he could fit into one day, from the museums to the best shops, he showed Keith everything. And, Keith found, if he looked at an item in a shop for too long Shiro would immediately swoop in and buy it for him without thought.  
  
The two of them return to the café with arms full of shopping bags; filled with all sorts of art supplies, books, dolls, and memorabilia from the gift shops.  
  
Aki scoffed when she saw them. “A little too excited about the new baby brother?”  
  
Shiro shrugs sheepishly.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Dr. Bellamy introduces them to a Hell’s Angel friend of theirs.  
  
The Hell’s Angels are a famous biker gang all over the country that’s known for their work helping befriend and protect abused kids going to trial against their abusers. The man Dr. Bellamy introduces him to is no different. The man is bigger than Shiro, with long hair tied beneath a bandana and a leather jacket. There are tattoos all across his muscled arms, and he has a pair of visors his eyes peek over as she studies Keith.  
  
He takes Keith on a ride through New Orleans. The night lights looking beautiful flying by them. Aki is screaming from her spot behind the man, but Keith can only laugh.  
It’s one of the most amazing feeling in the world.  
  
“Will you teach me to ride?” Keith asks his new friend later, face flushed from the excitement of the ride. Aki has pitifully crawled away from the machine, and is taking refuge next to Dr. Bellamy.  
  
“I’ll do you one better kid.” Stan, the Angel, ruffles his hair. “I’ll show you how to tune it up. That way you can fix up your own when you get big enough.”  
  
“That would be amazing!” Keith’s heart hammers in his chest.  
  
“Ohhh, noooo.” Aki despairs.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki and Shiro decide that Keith is ready for social interaction with children his own age.  
  
They’re wrong.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
“They don’t like me.” Keith mumbles into his hot cocoa later, surrounded by blankets, and squished between Aki and Shiro.  
  
“They’re assholes.” Aki sneers into her coffee.  
  
“Mom! Language!” Shiro reprimands before turning towards his new brother. “It’s not that they don’t like you Keith. They just…don’t understand.”  
  
“Shiro, shut up. Mama has this.” Aki leans forward and squeezes his hand lightly; ignoring Shiro’s weak grumbling.  
  
“Keith. Imma tell you a hard truth.” Aki’s brutal honesty voice is turned on full force. “You’re an abuse survivor.”  
  
“I’m getting somewhere!” Aki cuts off Shiro when he opens his mouth, causing him to snap it shut.  
  
“Now.” She starts again. “You’re an abuse survivor. Not everyone knows that, but it is going to color every aspect of your life from now on.”  
  
She huffs here, frustrated, and throws up air quotes. “Even when you’re “recovered” it’s going to affect your interactions with people for the rest of your life. And it’s even worse when people know about it.”  
  
“People...” Aki almost spits out the word. “…have a certain image in their head about what an abuse survivor should be. They think of someone meek or fragile, even when they, objectively, know that’s not true.”  
  
“They don’t like angry.” She places the coffee down now, turning to face him with both hands placed firmly on her knees. “Even when they say they understand, even when they promise to understand, people like criers more than angry people. They want to comfort sad people more than angry people.”  
  
Her hands are slamming against her knees now. “What happened with those kids; that wasn’t your fault. They treated you like a fucking baby and invalidated and resented your feelings when you snapped. Yea, you shouldn’t have snapped, but they shouldn’t have acted like the abuse dehumanized you, or that recovering somehow erases what happened.”  
  
Keith sends a look towards Shiro, who looks equally lost about what to say.  
  
“Look.” Aki sighs. “It’s not that you weren’t ready to deal with kids. It’s that people are insensitive assholes. If they don’t know, they think you’re an angry asshole for no reason. If they know, then they don’t know what to do and overcompensate and make it worse. Those kids were just told you were abused and didn’t know what to do after that. That’s on Dr. Bellamy and us, not you.”  
  
Aki leaves after that, making her way to the kitchen for another cup of coffee.  
  
“What was that?” Shiro turns to him with a raised eyebrow, his whole face bewildered by his mother’s outburst.  
  
Keith shrugs, unsure what to say.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Baba comes over to cook dinner for Shiro on his last night visiting.  
  
“Maybe ole’ Baba can keep this house from burn’ down.” She says, eyeing Shiro with a deep frown.  
  
Shiro scratches the back of his head sheepishly.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Shiro leaves with a hug and a promise to be back in time for the trial.  
  
Keith waves as he watches Shiro go, already missing his new brother even before the car is out of sight.  
  
“Don’t worry.” Aki plops down next to him; outright sitting on the sidewalk. “He’ll be back every holiday now. The real challenge will be keeping him from kidnapping you and keeping you in the Garrison like a giant-fluffy-hamster.”  
  
Keith smiles.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Spending time with Stan is quickly becoming one of his favorite things to do outside the house.  
  
Not that the cotton exchange or anything else in New Orleans isn’t fun, but learning all the bits and pieces of the motorcycles and hover bikes is working it’s way up the list of Keith’s favorite activities; right next to hearing Baba’s stories and watching television with Aki.  
  
There are so many oily bits and pieces that Stan patiently explains the names and uses of. There’s never a spent with Stan that Keith doesn’t return home covered in oil; to Aki’s despair. Aki always sends him off to the shower before she ever lets him near the kitchen.  
  
One day Stan gives him an extra bandana.  
  
Keith wears it around his neck for a whole week before Aki forces him to put it in his pocket outside “because it makes you look like a thug and people are staring.”  
  
Keith thinks Aki secretly loves it and just doesn’t want to admit it.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Some days when Aki brings him to the cotton exchange, Keith will crawl into a small corner and pull out his sketchbook.  
  
He’s been working on it ever since he was able to buy sketch pencils. He’s been inside every shop and behind every tree working on his sketches. He draws dogs, trees, shop owners, interesting things he spots in the shops, anything really.  
  
He gets his hands on watercolor pencils at some point, and starts experimenting with them by holing himself inside the hoodoo shop and trying to draw everything inside; the owner eyeing him with an amused smile the whole time.  
  
His sketchbook is filling up fast, and there’s slow progress being made as he works through every single page.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
Aki’s favorite animals are crocodiles.  
  
“So if you draw me one I’ll put it on the fridge next to Shiro’s drawings.” Aki winks at him.  
  
Clearly, Aki didn’t know about the superiority of hippopotamus over crocodiles. Nevertheless, Keith sets out to master drawing crocodiles lounging softly in water.  
  
And if he throws in a hippopotamus, well, that’s his business.

  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
The part of the trial that Keith needs to be present for comes a lot faster than he’d hoped.  
  
He’s not alone through them though. Aki is the first line of defense between him and his former foster parents, a strong warmth radiating from her as she physically shields him from them the first time he sees them again. Shiro is beside her, his usually pleasant face set hard as stone as he eyes them. Stan and Baba have come as well, each one ready and willing to throw themselves at Ma and Pa if they need to.  
  
Annabeth and her new foster family are there. They seem like pleasant people, and there are a few others there to support her. She smiles, sending a small and reluctant wave at Keith, but otherwise stays with her new family. Keith feels a pang of regret, but Aki had said that for some people recovering just meant they had to leave, and Annabeth was just doing what she thought she had too. He thinks he understands a bit, but it still hurt.  
  
In another part of the court Clancy is seated in an orange suit, surrounded by lawyers and a few police, long curly-brown hair tied back tightly. He smiles comfortingly when he sees Keith, and sends a small wave with his cuffed hands. Keith sends his own smile, waving back to his former brother, feeling a similar pang of regret. It was nice, though, seeing that Clancy still clearly cared about him even if he’d been forced out of Keith’s life.  
  
It’s a bittersweet thing, being here, but it’s more sweet than he’d thought it would be.  
  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
There is a lot of grief during the trial process. A lot of bitterness and yelling; with Pa’s furious yells and Ma’s cries. There are lawyers that call Keith and Annabelle liars. There are people who accuse Clancy of being a thug. There are cameras and a reporter or two. But it all comes to an end when the judges throw Ma and Pa in jail.  
  
Clancy is going to get another trial, which puts a smile on the older teen’s face. He practically dances down the aisles when he hears the news. The last Keith ever sees of his former brother is the hopeful look on his face as the police car he crawled in drives away.  
  
Annabeth leaves with her new family. Keith hears them promise her ice-cream as they walk around a corner; the father grabbing Anna’s hips gently and lifting her into the air. The laugh Keith heard her make is brighter than he’d ever heard from her before.  
  
He thinks of Zoe in that moment, and hopes the best for her.

  
♤♡◇♧☆  
  
“You’re going to have to go to school now.” Aki breaks the news to over dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant later. Each of them still dressed in their nice clothes from the trial, but in remarkably better spirits than before. Baba has even taken to drowning some red wine; laughing good naturedly at Stan’s rather sad attempt at eating the Italian food correctly.  
  
Shiro hums worriedly. “We could petition for more time. I’m sure Dr. Bellamy would help.”  
  
“It’s okay.” Keith pokes at his pasta. “I need to go back and face the world at some point.”  
  
“True.” Aki hums. “But that doesn’t mean you won’t have troubles. It’s a lot of work, getting back into the world after all this, and you’re gonna have a lot of bad days. Are you ready to face that?”  
  
Keith looks at them; at the people who have all taken time out of their lives to help him even when they didn’t have to. Thinks of where he was before them, where he would have been if Aki hadn’t been driving by that bridge that day, and know what he has to do.  
  
“Not really.” Keith answers honestly. “But I’m ready to try.”

**Author's Note:**

> Playlist I listented to while writing this:
> 
> 1) Growing Pains by Maria Mena  
> 2) Wolf by First Aid Kit  
> 3) Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars  
> 4) Off To The Races by Lana Del Rey  
> 5) Devil's Backbone by The Civil Wars  
> 6) Paralyzed by NF  
> 7) The Humbling River by Puscifer  
> 8) Í Tokuni by Eivør  
> 9) Seatbelt Hands by the Listener  
> 10) He Did by Anais Mitchell  
> 11) Amhrán na Farraige or "Song of the Sea" from Song of the Sea  
> 12) Kaine's Salvation as covered by Sharm


End file.
